In his most pointed attack so far here on this Palmetto State swing, the Texas governor said that when Romney said he was worried about pink slips, he was "worried he would run out."

"I had to shake my head yesterday when one of the wealthiest men, I suppose, that's ever run for the presidency of the United States — the son of a multimillionaire — Mitt Romney, he said 'I know what its like to worry about whether you're going to get fired," Perry said at a restaurant here. "'There were a couple of times when I wondered whether I was going to get a pink slip.' He actually said this. Now, I have no doubt that Mitt Romney was worried about pink slips, whether he was going to have enough of them to hand out. Because his company Bain Capital, with all the jobs that they killed. I'm sure he was worried he'd run out of pink slips."

Perry localized it, talking about a nearby business in Gaffney that was "looted" by "Mitt Romney's private equity firm" by $20 million in management fees. And a steel company in Georgetown, S.C., that also got hit with millions in management fees.

"There is something inherently wrong when getting rich off failure and sticking it to someone else is how you do your business," Perry said.

It's the "ultimate insult," Perry said, for the front-running Romney to come to South Carolina "and tell you he feels the pain, because he caused it."